The Life Of (And The Tragedy That Is) Alex Drake
by WhyAreYouLaughing
Summary: Sometimes the story of the bad guys have to be told too. After all they're just liars with bigger lies and destroyed morals. Alex Drake was born a mistake. A bargaining chip for a mother's escape. An after thought. (5 minutes after her sister, and that has made all the difference.)


_So let heaven be told, that some may come, some may go. Where I'll end up? I don't know but I'm not dying alone. -I don't want to die by Hollywood Undead._ Alex Drake was born a mistake. A bargaining chip for a mother's escape. An after thought.

(5 minutes after her sister, and that has made all the difference.)

October 28th, the month of horrors.

Had Alex known the Hastings tradition of having kids as early as possible in the year, she would of laughed so hard.

(Spencer fits into this world only slightly better then her.)

The spawn of two people who wanted to hurt each other. The dark details of an affair. The fallout of an impulsive decision. Unloved and unwanted.

(Oh, the similarities and differences between Spencer and Alex Drake.)

The heartless used to care too much. About their past, about their blood-ties. Then they figured it all out.

(The broken though, are simply born that way.)

Back when she was just a kid of 10 years, still on her third foster family, she met a boy named Justin.

(Dark hair and baby blue eyes. He could practically be Toby's long lost twin. Happened once right?)

Two desks over and one behind. Yet, she was still closer to him then Alex has ever been to anyone.

(Not like that's saying much.)

He had a older brother named Isaac and a younger sister named Rachel. He had two loving parents.

(And the house of cards falls down.)

Justin was her best friend, her partner in crime, and he lost his life because someone didn't take enough care while driving.

(It was the first time Alex hated someone other then her foster family.)

Why love the world when it's so cruel? It takes away all it ever gave. Why does the universe target one person?

(She traces over the initials carved into the tree. JC and AR. Justin Cooper and Alex Richards. They both died in that car crash.)

It only takes another week for her to get kicked out of that house, and she grins. Alex doesn't mess around.

(Hastings always get what they want, and Drakes always fuck everything up. So it was only too easy.)

Family number four were of the average sort. As in, they talk all sweet so they get your support money.

(Fair enough, Alex thinks in amusement, I'm no pleasure to live with.

She's on her 7th house by the end of the year.)

When Alex is eighteen, she ages out foster care. In the same year, Alex meets a doctor while working the nightshift at the local bar.

(He was one of her greatest regrets. Right up there with Justin.)

Wren Kingston tells a tale of a girl who looks exactly like her. A girl who is adored and cherished by many.

(He doesn't tell her about the mental break down in Radley or her Adderall addiction.)

They talk all night, and Alex ends up inviting him to her tiny apartment. He takes a sip of vodka soda and shows a picture of Spencer that's on his phone.

(Her twin is in the middle of a group. A petite brunette on one side and a blonde on the other. Another brunette's beside the blonde.)

For the first time since Justin's death, Alex Drake sobbed and sobbed until she couldn't anymore.

(She mourns the life of having a sister much more then she should.)

He leaves the next morning, and she knows that everything has changed. Alex just isn't sure if it is for better or worse.

(All they share is blood but in another world it could all be different.)

She spends the rest of the day searching up the name Spencer Hastings. A surprising amount comes up.

(Alex ignores the website saying that "Heartless Hastings killed her best friend" It hits too close to home)

Through this, she learns that Spencer and her friends have repeatedly been stalked by a cyberbully with a grudge.

(They all look so happy though. Happier then her.)

Then Alex hates the thought that comes into her mind. The kind of self-hate that she hasn't felt in a long time.

(She fully justified A's actions.)

When Alex is nineteen, she realizes that she isn't the only child to suffer so much in the Hastings/Drake/DiLaurentis war.

(Charlotte Drake. Her other sister.)

They met at the airport, and Alex can hear Wren's voice giving Charlotte directions. Alex also hears the gasp that Charlotte makes when the older girl sees her.

(She'll forever be in the shadow of Spencer, but for once that's a good thing.)

Just like with Wren, the two sister talk for hours. It was like they always knew each other, like they really knew each other.

(Like they were family.)

Alex asked about Rosewood, about the horror stories that the internet tells, and Charlotte all but confirms it.

(Yet neither of them say a word about A)

She also inquires about the last Drake child, and Charlotte sighed. "She's not like us, Al. Just like Alison, she needs to be taught a lesson."

(Spencer is their kin though, so even they couldn't fully hate her. Later on Alex would realize that they both sucked at showing that.)

The meeting ends with Charlotte giving Alex her number, and Alex actually means it when she says "I love you."

(Charlotte chuckles, already a familiar sound. "I love you too.")

A week later, Alex meets up with Wren and Charlotte. Her sister brings a charming man named Archer.

(Right away, he and Alex hit it off, and they had inside jokes by the end of the day.)

It was almost like she had a functional family. Her, Charlotte, Wren and Archer. When she was with them, it felt like home.

(Years later, she'll be the only one still alive. One killed by her own hands, and his voice soon joined the others in her nightmares.)

Those kind of hangouts continued for months. Then the beginning of the end started. Charlotte went back to Rosewood.

(The genius enslaved by her own game. Not that Alex knew the truth at the time.)

Alex still remembers reading this horrible newspaper on how A has finally been caught. A picture of Charlotte above the caption.

(It all made sense, Alex said to herself.)

There was no way that Alex could see her sister without revealing her identity. For a little bit, she thought that it would be worth doing exactly that.

(Charlotte would of actually killed her though. Locked in an asylum or not.)

Alex ends up on Archer's couch with Wren as the host warmed up some frozen food. The silence was a comfort.

(They all may not very fuzzy people, but in someway they somehow love each other.)

It was hard for the three of them. None of them can even go near Charlotte without raising too many questions.

("Screw them all" Alex announces suddenly. "We have to see her."

Archer shook his head. "You know what she wants, Alex.")

When she wakes up to Wren and Archer sleeping. Alex thinks that maybe if she has them, she'll make it.

(Neither of them even gets a proper burial.)

When Alex is twenty-four, the first person who ever loved her is murdered like some kind of animal.

(As Archer points out in his yelling, they never even get a chance to see her.)

Wren tells her first, he's crying and keeps repeating sorry over and over again. Alex is the one who tells Archer. He swears and smashes the mirror.

(The three of them sit in different corners of the room. Staring silently at each other as if that'll bring her back.)

"I'm going to Rosewood." Archer's quiet tone sounds deafening. "I need to figure out who killed her."

(Revenge, is the word he doesn't say but they all hear.")

Wren agrees, then he looks at you. "Alex.. You know why you can't come." Archer stands up. "He's right. You will cause the most questions out of us."

(Archer had slapped her on the shoulder before him and Wren left, and she knew that is his version of a heartfelt goodbye )

Alex stumbled on Charlotte's lair, soon after their leaving. It was a massive hidden room.

(Hundreds of photos lined the wall. A girl looking like her was in many of them.)

She took a glance over the hideout, dozens folders were tucked into a drawer. Most of which were labeled with unfamiliar names.

(Aria, Emily, Hanna, Caleb, Mike, Toby.)

Alex went through each of them, then booked the next flight to Rosewood, PA. Time to uphold the family legacy.

(Liars, addicts, killers. It all runs through their veins.)

She's about to turn back when Alex spots the TV. Mentally Ill Ex-Stalker, killed by victims?

(Alex is not going to let anyone else fuck up on getting peace for Charlotte.)

Alex is barely twenty-five when she realizes that Archer lost his mind. She was all for punishing the murderer, but not someone who is innocent.

(Not like this anyways. Not with a bucket of ice cold water and a cattle prod.)

Alex doesn't blame him, the human mind can only take so much, and he lost the love of his life.

(However marrying her cousin is a little too far.)

The man that she knew and loved had died with Charlotte. He will be missed like the brother Alex never had.

(One rule Alex has, she chooses her family. Jason is far too much like Charlotte's version of whatever Spencer is to Alex)

So when she figured out that Archer was going to kill Hanna, well the blonde reminded her too much of Charlotte to be another meaningless death.

(Not just in looks. In those rare unguarded moments, Charlotte had shared Hanna's impish soul.)

When the Archer's countdown is dismal, Alex sneaks into the barn with her hair done as Spencer had it long ago.

(After she confirms that Hanna isn't guilty, Alex takes pity on the girl and whispers advice as she falls asleep.)

Archer, no Dunhill, she can't keep thinking of him as the smirking boy who he looks like, was far from happy at that stunt.

("Be careful, Alex." He threatens. "Before you met the same fate as your cousin.)

She stops talking to him after Alex realizes that he used her initials in the text that got Hanna kidnapped.

(He was on to something though, Dunhill always was.)

Alex was fifthteen when she came up with the board game. Make people ruin their lives on a town-sized game.

(It reminded her of some twisted movie plot. Maybe this time the bad guy would win.)

She's almost sixteen when Alex finishes the blueprints. It's a rough copy but there's still evidence that a genius made it.

(Alex is twenty five when she puts those plans into action.)

Alex is four months away from her twenty sixth birthday when she kills Wren in cold blood.

(She sometimes pretends that the diamond around her neck is his early present.)

Alex actually isn't sure whether or not she intended it. Whether she actually planed it out but she started thinking about how everyone leaves her.

(Archer Dunhill was run over by the girl she saved yet Alex doesn't really have any resentment held for her. Hanna simply took him out of his misery.)

The both of them are at Wren's apartment, and everything is innocent for once. No stalking, no lying.

(She decided to leave Rosewood. To do what Charlotte, what her sister, tried to do. Drop the game.)

Alex knows what she did later makes her monster but she supposes it was only a matter of time.

(Archer tortured two girls and Charlotte locked five of them in a underground bunker. Wren was always the most innocent out of all of them.)

The thing is people leave, one way or the other. Everyone leaves. Whether they mean for it to hurt or not.

(But diamonds last forever.)

(The genius enslaved by her own game. The lover driven insane by that very same love. The doctor betrayed by his trust. The orphan who is just as much to blame for her status as the world is.)


End file.
